The behavior of solids under excitation with intense femtosecond laser pulses

1. Electronic and optical properties of solids : interaction of matter with light, dielectric function, phonons, direct and indirect excitation processes, cohesion in solids, covalent and metallic bonding, band structure, interaction of light with matter:

2. Energy transfer and relaxation in solids: single and multiphoton excitation, avalance photoionization, carrier-carrier scattering, carrier-phonon scattering, radiative and nonradiative carrier recombination, carrier diffusion, time scales:

3. Optical probing techniques: Generation of femtosecond laser pulses, pump-probe experiments, linear and nonlinear optical probing techniques, examples: reflectivity, transmission, second harmonic generation, photon echo, four-wave mixing, luminescence:

4. Recent experimental advances: Femtosecond laser-induced structural changes in semiconductors, metals, and dielectrics, ultrashort x-ray pulse generation